“…Given the current fundamentally different circumstances, is it well justified to rely on the Russian opposition when dealing with Putin’s Russia? Should we continue engaging it in the stand against the regime or we’d better cut off funding and supporting it? – I believe there could be one answer to all of your questions. There is no truly effective opposition in Russia today! Yet, everything is not as simple as that and we still keep our doors open…”

Press conference of the U.S. Senator for Maryland Ben Cardin.

Well, isn’t it breaking? There happens to be no opposition in Russia! Or to be more exact, there is, but it’s rather poor, spineless, toothless and outright useless. You simply cannot single anyone out and call him a leader! The People’s Freedom Party of Mr. Kasyanov, The Progress Party of Mr. Navalny, The Democratic Choice of Mr. Milov – the titles and names are different while the essence is the same – half-criminal shady deals, undisguised hatred of their own people, commitment to fight for anything so long as it is paid for: today they fight against an abstract ‘putin’ for the money of American funds, tomorrow they set upon each other on request of private investors. Internal ideology of the opposition is in chaos altogether – human rights, corruption, ‘annexation’ of Crimea, the housing and public utilities reform, highway construction, ‘aggression’ in Syria, personal ambition, business, grants… The devil himself can’t figure it out who is with whom, why and most importantly – what for.

However there are sometimes traces not of life but of some showcase activity just like an incriminating report about Mr. Kadyrov uploaded in the web, or yet another anti-regime rally of a dozen people which gathers more bystanders than participants. Looks like they haven’t yet spent all the sponsors’ money, although judging by the ‘magnitude’ of the latest revolutionary parties their best days are far gone.

The most dismal thing is that only the death of a leader of that stage protest can bring ever so strong emotional vibrations and some semblance of life into the liberal opposition agenda. For example, they commemorated the death of Boris Nemtsov with so much cheerfulness that they broke two accordions, as the folk saying goes: no one went to the cemetery; instead they arranged a performance on the bridge with songs and jokes but with no tears and no universal grief. Nothing more than ‘a political disco party’! They raised both the corpse of Boris Nemtsov and his daughter Zhanna onto the propaganda shield and tried to earn at least some points with not so strict international jury by ‘deeply personal’ recollections about the deceased.

And it has got nothing to do with political leaders! What can you say about the morale and ethics of the people who pray for the deceased in this manner!? It is not as if they concealed (what for?!) that Boris Nemtsov is far more useful for them dead than alive, and when he was alive just a year and a half ago none of the ‘mourners’ would shake hands with him. Yet he is ‘the father of Russian democracy’ now. A fine way to promote yourself and justify the investments made into the Russian revolution.

However, let the God take care of them, they have got not a single human trait in them, only a cover. The opposition failed to mold the political nonentity into a sacred prey and they had no chance to stir Russia and make Maidans all around the country to reduce the ‘bloody Putin’s regime’ down to nothing. It seems to be the reason why the sponsors from Washington are at a loss. No one (no one at all!!) of their creatures, the so-called leaders of the protest, lived up to their hopes and justified the invested money.

Advocates of sexual minorities are on the rise instead, they have snatched the palm of victory from their opponents in the liberal camp. Without a moment’s hesitation Washington decided it was more viable to promote democracy in Russia by means of GayRussia.Ru initiative and other LGBT communities. While the time has come to discard a more traditional though non systemic opposition which failed to simulate civil society in Russia let alone organize it. Putting it differently, the State Department cuts the funding of opposition members like Navalny, Yashin and so on because they are no longer considered to be good investment – their voter support could be written off as statistical uncertainty.

Time will show just how profitable the investment into the LGBT community turns out to be, however taking into account that the gay-activists meet with the chief American expert on colored and flower revolutions, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft, this is by no means a one shot promotion. It is not a public flogging of the chastised partners, but rather a beginning of a new campaign with fresh faces and instructions. We could add the adepts of the Turkish religious Nur Movement sect and Jehovah’s Witnesses among whom the United States is also persistently seeking assistance for the work in Russia and the outcome would include every element necessary for the desirable ‘blue revolution’! This is exactly what Washington likes to call ‘soft power’. And this kind of ‘open doors’ the American Senator talked about at his conference.